AR-News: (US) STATE OF HUNTING: DECLINE CONTINUES WITH FEWER HUNTERS KILLING FEWER VICTIMS, REPORT REVEALS

[Tracey McIntire]

For Immediate Release

STATE OF HUNTING: DECLINE CONTINUES WITH FEWER HUNTERS KILLING FEWER 
VICTIMS, REPORT REVEALS

SILVER SPRING, MD (January 21, 2004) -- Following last nights State of 
the Union address by President Bush, The Fund for Animals released a new 
report today on The State of Hunting in America. The report, titled A 
Dying Sport, reveals that the decline in hunting which began in the 
1970s is continuing unabated in the 21st century despite intense efforts 
by the hunting industry to recruit new hunters. The report utilizes 
statistics provided by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and 
state wildlife agencies to document the ongoing drop-off in both the 
number of hunters and the number of hunting victims.

During the 2002-03 hunting season, hunters killed 115 million animals, a 
decline of 42% in the 14 years since the 1988-89 season, when hunters 
killed 200 million. The most victimized species is the mourning dove, of 
whom 22.7 million were killed in 2002-03, followed by squirrels with 
22.6 million. By contrast, deer represented only 6% of hunting victims, 
with 6.4 million killed.

According to Michael Markarian, president of The Fund for Animals, 
While only 6% of hunting victims are deer, who are typically perceived 
to be overpopulated, 40% are doves and squirrels who dont cause car 
accidents, dont provide meat on their tiny bodies, and dont need to be 
culled or managed in any way. So-called wildlife management is 
just a ploy to mislead the public into believing that sport hunting 
performs some useful function. But thankfully, killing wildlife for fun 
is on its way out.

This decline in the number of victims has been accompanied by a decline 
in the number of hunters. In 1991 there were 14 million hunters age 16 
or older. By 2001, the latest year for which statistics are available, 
that number had fallen to 13 million, a decline of 7%, or nearly 1% per 
year.

The report also revealed that in 2001, 66 million wildlife watchers 
spent $38.4 billion on their hobby, while 13 million hunters spent only 
$21.6 billion.

Said Heidi Prescott, national director of The Fund for Animals, Hunters 
like to brag about how much they contribute to the economy. But wildlife 
watchers contribute almost twice as much. And when the hunters are in 
the woods, the wildlife watchers stay home. State wildlife agencies 
should stop catering to the hunting lobby and start paying more 
attention to wildlife watchers.

A copy of the 55-page report is available online at:
http://www.fund.org/library/documentViewer.asp?ID=85&table=documents